A beautiful bit of rubber with an ability to deal with a wide range of conditions, the Continental Mud King 2.3 offers a more subtle edge, rounder profile than many mud–only tyre options…
From Dirt Issue 126 – August 2012
Words by Steve Jones. Photo by Steve Jones.
Continental’s Black Chilli compound rubber feels like your best mate in the wet root and rock management side of the business, yet the rounder profile does affect its full–on pure mud riding ability. Depending on the overall track conditions a full spike will still give you slightly more edge in the soft stuff. That said, that type of tyre will get a bit too aggressive on the root on occasion – like I said, it depends on the track percentages of mud and rock, and many riders’ obsession with the cut down tyre.
The sidewalls feature an ‘apex layer’ – a soft elastomer rubber sandwiched between the casing plies to protect from impacts. I had no puncture issues with them, more than that, consider that both Atherton and Beaumont opted for the 2.3 Mud King at crazy rock and root Val di Sol says a huge amount of this tyre’s potential.
Slightly subtler than say a Specialized Storm or a Maxxis Wet Scream, the Mud King in DH casing is priced at £54.95 for the 2.3 version, it feels like a significantly more robust tyre than the 1.8 version we rode last winter. It also feels like a better compound, but we might be wrong. This strength reveals itself in terms of weight, which at 1100g is nearly twice as much as the trail rubber. It would be great to see an in between version of this tyre for enduro racing.
Developed in the dirty damp and soft shit of Ceiriog country, north Wales, and raced on the chaos of dry rocky Italian and American battlefields to podium positions, it’s a highly valuable bit of competition rubber merchandise.
£54.95
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